'German Fritzl' goes on trial accused of forcing stepdaughter to have eight of his children

A German trucker has gone on trial accused of sexually abusing his daughter
and stepchildren for decades as neighbours and social services apparently
ignored telltale signs.

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Defendant Detlef S. speaks to his lawyer Dueber before start of his trial in KoblenzPhoto: REUTERS

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The house in Fluterschen near Koblenz, western Germany, where the 48-year-old German suspect livedPhoto: AP

11:46AM GMT 15 Feb 2011

The 48-year-old, identified only as Detlef S, is accused of forcing his stepdaughter, now in her late 20s, to have eight of his children and of sexually abusing his daughter and stepson in a 23-year reign of terror.

Tests have shown with 99.9-per-cent certainty that he fathered seven children with his stepdaughter, who also gave birth to an eighth child who died. The children are now between 15 months and 11 years old.

As the trial opened, the smartly-dressed defendant showed little emotion and appeared calm as the charges were read out.

The Bild daily dubbed the trial in Koblenz, western Germany, the trial of "the German Fritzl" after Austrian Josef Fritzl, who held his daughter Elisabeth as a sex slave in a cramped dungeon for 24 years.

Fritzl raped Elisabeth thousands of times, fathering seven children with her and letting one of the newborn babies die. He was sentenced to life in prison in March 2009.

In total Detlef S is charged with 350 counts of sexual assault and grievous sexual assault of minors. He is also accused of prostituting the stepdaughter and his biological daughter out to others, allegedly while he watched.

A verdict is expected on February 25.

Midwife Gabriele Schulte, who delivered three of the children, said that she and a doctor had become suspicious and had alerted social services, but that it came to nothing.

"They went over there to see what was what. But since the children showed no signs of being neglected or even abused, and as the daughter said nothing, they had to leave," Schulte told the local Rhein-Zeitung daily.

She said that the accused was present at all the births, and that he always seemed very self-assured.

"He didn't seem to be afraid they might start talking. And he definitely didn't have a bad conscience," she said.

The stepson told N-TV news: "Of course we are scared of the trial, but I hope we will have the strength to come through it."

Asked what he hoped for from the case, he replied: "That he (the accused) is never free again. That he is never able to hurt people in the way he hurt us."

Speaking earlier to Bild, he also gave a harrowing account of one typical episode in 2002.

"Detlef was drunk. He went upstairs. Suddenly we heard screaming. We saw Detlef trying to drag my sister into the bedroom. My mother started shouting at him and he beat her up so badly that she lost consciousness."

"We went to the police and to social services but never heard anything back from them. Five days later I moved out of the house."

One of the man's neighbours told the Rhein-Zeitung local daily: "We often wondered about the several children in his house. Especially because they looked so much like him."

The man was arrested on August 10, 2010 and has been in custody since.

The mother, who is in her 50s, is expected to appear as a witness in the trial and prosecutors are not charging her with any offence, lawyer Katharina Hellwig said last week.

"It looks as if she repressed what went on," Hellwig said.

The trial was suspended immediately after the charge sheet was read out. The accused was not expected to speak during the trial, but his lawyer indicated he might read out a statement on his behalf.

In line with German privacy laws, the defendant's full name was not given in court.